July 02, 2006

Lamont Smokes Lieberman Over The Internet

When U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman recently posted a cartoon on his campaign
Web site that took aim at his Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, the
online world lit up.

One fast-thinking Lamont supporter
quickly posted the ad _ which portrays the candidate as a baby bear
being bullied into running for the Senate _ on the popular
video-sharing Web site YouTube.

Soon, the 600 people registered to a Lamont YouTube group could create links to the ad on their own Web blogs.

"His
angry and desperate ad was seen by 30,000 people," said Tim Tagaris,
Lamont's director of Internet communications. "It can start small by
one person noticing something. Within hours, it can be seen by 30,000
people, minimal."

The now-infamous "bear ad," which Lieberman
also sent by way of e-mail to his supporters, highlights how the
Internet has played such a large role in this Democratic primary, which
has attracted national attention.

Whatever the outcome, there is no question that one of the reasons the primary is as close as it is, is because the Lieberman campaign is not only inept, but their old-style approach is doing everything it can to fire up Lamont supporters.

It's not just what Joe says, it's the way he says it. It's not just what his campaign says, it's how it goes about doing it.

But aside from links to give money or volunteer for the campaign,
Lieberman has relied more on traditional outreach efforts, such as
phone calls, mailings and door-to-door campaigning using sophisticated
voter lists. Smith, who runs his own consulting company, said former
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean proved there are
limitations to political support on the Internet.

"Despite the
excitement and promise of that medium, most rank and file voters don't
know what a blog is," he said. "Most people are not getting their news
from the Internet and most of them do not participate in that way."

Uh-huh. Yeah. Brilliant move. Keep dissing the netroots, Joe. You
keep doing it the old-fashioned way. It's dropped your poll numbers
every time a new set of numbers come in. it's got the smart money
betting against you in the primary, and scrambling for analysis of a
three-way Joementum independent campaign. But you know best, Joe.
That's what got you here in the first place.

"They've basically used technology to take old fashioned political
tactics and just moved them into this century," Hancock said. "How that
will translate still needs to be seen. We'll see if this new high-tech
way of campaigning will translate into what's really important: votes."

Joe doesn't need the internet to turn off voters.
He's been doing that successfully since he conceded the 2000 election
without a fight. And the internet driven campaign of Ned Lamont has
already turned CT upside down politically. Sure, a netroots candidate
needs to win, just like any candidate does. But without the netroots
this wouldn't be close.

So let the dinosaurs write up their take on the internet. It'll be
most interesting to see what they're writing about August 9, win or
lose. In future, internet readership will only go up. The same, alas,
cannot be said for newsprint and TV.

Comments

I can hear the dinosaurs sitting over lunch (which had been a large herbivore dinosaur) and gossipping about the pesky mammal problem.

Dinosaur 1 - "Have you been infested with those mammals?"

Dinosaur 2 - "Oh, there's a few around. I try to grab some between breakfast and luch, but they are so small. Not even a good snack."

D1 - "Yes, but there are so many. Some have even gotten into my nest, and gotten my eggs!"

D2 - "Hmmm. I've heard that can be a problem. But at the moment we have bigger problems. How are you betting on the up-coming battle between T-Rex and Tricerotops? That will determine the king of the forest."

D1 - "You're right, of course. If these mammals get big enough to challenge us, they'll just be better meals. I guess they're not real problems."

D2 - "Of course not. King of Forest is a battle of size, teeth and claws, noise and speed. We can just ignore the mammals. What can they do to us?"

D1 - "Well, nothing, really, I guess. But they sure are pests."

D2 - "Yeah. Maybe you should call DeLayosaurus down in Sugarland. He used to be big in the forest, and he used to be an exterminaor. Maybe he can help with your pest problems."

D1 - "Him? Is he still alive? I'd heard he was gone. I guess you're right. Mammals are just harmless little pests of no real important. Back to the real problems. What's the odds on T-Rex these day?"

And the converstation drifts off to other subjects, as the mammals eat the dinosaur eggs and prevent future large dinosaur reproduction.

It was dark, but the dinosaurs hadn't evolved lips that would let them whistle in it yet. Can Joe whistle?

Doesn't that just say it all? I mean, I'd sure want to hire someone capable of such sterling insights as "people said Howard Dean was a big deal because of this Internet stuff, and he didn't win, so we can conclude that Internet stuff is never going to do it for anyone."